PRCC receives $10,000 from Coast EPA, CoBank

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POPLARVILLE - Pearl River Community College today received a $10,000 gift from Coast Electric Power Association and CoBank.

Coast EPA, a long-time supporter of PRCC, gave the college $5,000 which was matched by CoBank through its Sharing Success program.

“I don’t know what to say ... we don’t often get folks coming in with $10,000,” said Dr. William Lewis, PRCC president. “We’ll decide how best to use this gift.”

Robert J. Occhi, president and chief executive officer of Coast EPA, and Doran Dennis, a CoBank vice president, presented the gifts. CoBank, headquartered near Denver, Colo., provides loans, leases, export financing and other financial services to agribusinesses and rural power, water and communications providers in all 50 states.

“They said they’ll match whatever the co-operative gives to a charity of its choice,” Occhi said. “We feel very close to this institution.”

Coast EPA is one of the founders of the PRCC utility lineman technology program advisory board and employs a number of graduates of the program.

“It has been a good partnership with Coast Electric,” Lewis said. “We’ve done some special things with Coast Electric and the other electric power companies who helped develop the utility lineman program.”

CoBank established a $3 million charitable fund, called Sharing Success, to match contributions by its cooperative customers to non-profit organizations in 2012.

“It really was a pleasure for us to be able to partner with folks,” Dennis said. “Our mission is to serve rural America. We were excited when Coast decided to take advantage of the program.”